Isaac Karimi
Razi University, Iran
Title: Molecular dynamics as a tool to discover novel endogenous systems: lessens we learnt from opioid and endocannabinoid systems
Biography
Biography: Isaac Karimi
Abstract
"All components and properties found in the greater world, the universe, will be searched and found in the lesser world, human." - AbÅ« ḤÄmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-GhazÄlÄ« (Algazelus), a muslim philosopher (c. 1058 – 1111).
More than two century ago, a German pharmacist Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Serturmer isolated morphine from opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.). Afterward morphine congeners introduced into the market. After a long pause, by the 1973s, opioid receptors and endogenous opioids (endorphins) have been discovered by researchers at Johns Hopkins University. In a similar scenario, in 1964, a Bulgarian-descent Israeli organic chemist, Raphael Mechoulam, identified and synthetized Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive principle of hashish prepared from Cannabis sativa L. and his research team also discovered the endogenous cannabinoids, anandamide and 2-arachidonoyl glycerol (2-AG) under his supervision. Finally in 1990s, researchers in St. Louis University School of Medicine discovered cannabinoid receptors. After discovery of these two endogenous systems, we found that these systems are involving in many physiological functions besides their psychopharmacological activities. I hypothesize here, the story of opium and hashish can be repeated more quickly for other psychotropic herbs because we are armed to cheminformatics nowadays. In this oration, I will describe a molecular dynamic methodology that generates a list of high-binding small molecule ligands found in psychoactive herbs like Passiflora incarnate, Turnera diffusa var. aphrodisiaca, Eschscholzia californica, Lobelia inflate, Aquilegia Canadensis, Juniperus virginiana, etc. for selected orphan G protein-coupled receptors.